1.9 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
As required in Brizee (2010), the following ethical
considerations will be observed by the researcher:
? The researcher should obtain permission from the
institution where the study is intended to be done, to conduct his research.
? The researcher should not cause any offence or attempt to
hurt respondents in his study. Therefore, he should carefully select questions,
in order to avoid any offense to his subjects during interviews.
? The researcher should avoid using his own opinions to
influence the interviewees in the study. Therefore, he must remain more
objective than subjective.
? Unless with the permission of the interviewee, the researcher
should keep the identity of respondents to the research anonymous.
1.10 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The study will only focus on a sample of 200 patients and can
therefore not be seen as representative of all patients attending the military
hospital. The study focuses on identifying the variables influencing patient
satisfaction at the military hospital in Libreville, Gabon. Therefore the study
cannot be seen as representative of services in the entire health care
industry. The use of a survey is also a limitation to the study. The respondent
responses might be bias and they might deliberately falsify their answers.
Future research may include a bigger sample and include other medical
facilities in Gabon.
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1.11 DIVISION OF THE STUDY
Chapter 1
This chapter provides the introduction and background to the
study. The formulation of the research problem, the objectives and the
hypotheses of the study will be outlined. Similarly, the purpose and
significance of the study, reviewing of the literature, the scope and
limitation of the study were presented in this chapter.
Chapter 2
Chapter two describes the state of health care in Africa and
in Gabon in particular. In addition, it will discuss health care development
strategies in hospitals, and furthermore, focus on how the military hospital
has been operating since the facility was established.
Chapter 3
Literature in this chapter will give insight into the aspects
of services marketing in organisations and in the health care industry, and how
it can benefit organisations through improving services quality that meets
customers' expectations and leads to customer satisfaction. This chapter will
also discuss service quality in organisations as well as in the health care
sector. It will investigate at how quality services can lead to customer
satisfaction and profitability. Aspects such tangibility, reliability,
responsiveness, assurance and empathy will be discussed.
Chapter 4
In this chapter focus shall be placed on the research
methodology and design to be followed to achieve the research objectives. In
other words, emphasis will be on the research method, research format, research
technique, population, and the sampling methodology which includes sample size,
sampling type and sampling technique and data analysis.
Chapter 5
The analysis and interpretation of data will be presented in
the chapter. The research finding and interpretation of data will be presented.
The results obtained will be compared with the findings of the already
published empirical studies and the literature review on which the study is
based.
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Chapter 6
In this chapter, the researcher will come to conclusions and
make recommendations. From the results it will be possible to determine whether
the research objectives as stated in the first chapter were achieved, and if
the problem statement as described is relevant. Conclusions will be drawn and
meaningful recommendations made.
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